Positive News from the USA

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 16 Sep 2015 11:38

America's Oligarch Problem: How the Super-Rich Threaten US Democracy

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 16 Sep 2015 12:36

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrant_(TV_series)

will be telecast in india on colours infinity channel.

Multatuli · Post by **Multatuli** » 16 Sep 2015 12:49

What is the above post about some American tv show supposed to mean? The Wikipedia page doe not provide any meaningful information. As a moderator you ought to know better.

Apparently, the types of encryption available to common people is too strong for the GOTUS/FBI, so they want the software companies to provide them with a backdoor (at least this is how I read the following).

FBI, DOJ want tech industry to find workaround to 'warrant-proof' encryption

With law enforcement nationwide complaining that encrypted communications are hindering investigations, senior FBI and Department of Justice officials on Tuesday made one of the government’s most detailed arguments yet for why it needs easier access to secure consumer data.

The government wants tech companies to “develop a solution” that both maintain users’ privacy but ensures police and federal agents can obtain data with a warrant or court order, said Amy Hess, executive assistant director for the FBI’s technology division.

“We support strong encryption to be able to protect data, to be able to protect communications, to be able to protect conversations,” she said. “But the challenge for us is what is the American public’s appetite if we go to 100 percent secure systems that nobody can access – ever.”

...

In fact, many technology experts and leading cryptographers argue the government is asking the tech sector to come up with a solution that would install security flaws into consumer devices, if not weaken overall computer security and put everyone’s digital data at greater risk.

“It’s real easy to frame this as a debate with a trade off between national security and law enforcement on one side and privacy and strong encryption on the other,” said Matt Blaze, a University of Pennsylvania cryptography expert. “But I think it’s completely wrong.”

Instead, he said, building stronger encryption into devices and technologies will improve national security and law enforcement since it’ll serve as a bulwark against attacks or data breaches at time of increasingly devastating hacks. What’s more, according to Mr. Blaze, the government is asking technologists to find new ways to safeguard complex systems, which is inherently risky.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/fbi-doj-wa ... 00149.html

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 16 Sep 2015 13:01

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kam ... verride=in

even owning a bmw did not save a black woman from being pounced on by the police

Multatuli · Post by **Multatuli** » 16 Sep 2015 13:04

Minnesota exposes one troubling reason America locks up so many black people

America has banished a disproportionate number of its black citizens to the "gray wasteland" of incarceration, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in The Atlantic's new cover story.

In "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration," Coates notes that in 2000, one in 10 black males between the ages of 20 and 40 was behind bars. That was 10 times the rate for white males in the same age group.

A decade later, Coates writes, one-third of black male high-school dropouts between 20 and 39 were incarcerated. Only 13% of white dropouts in that age group were behind bars.

...

Coates says Minnesota provides a bigger lesson.

"The lesson of Minnesota is that the chasm in incarceration rates is deeply tied to the socioeconomic chasm between black and white America," he writes.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/state-min ... 21342.html

Neela · Post by **Neela** » 16 Sep 2015 19:07

Would urge all to read "The case for reparations" by Ta Nehisi Coates.
USA in all its glory.

gakakkad · Post by **gakakkad** » 16 Sep 2015 20:05

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/communit ... school.ece

Irving 9th-grader arrested after taking homemade clock to school: 'So you tried to make a bomb?'

May be he should have taken an AK 47 to school instead of a homemade clock..that would be more in line with texan customs...

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 16 Sep 2015 20:20

Words fail me -
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... ns/361631/

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 16 Sep 2015 23:24

Karan M wrote:Words fail me -
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... ns/361631/

This one

The next day, I stationed myself by the side of the road, along which the slaves, amounting to three hundred and fifty, were to pass. The purchaser of my wife was a Methodist minister, who was about starting for North Carolina. Pretty soon five waggon-loads of little children passed, and looking at the foremost one, what should I see but a little child, pointing its tiny hand towards me, exclaiming, “There’s my father; I knew he would come and bid me good-bye.” It was my eldest child! Soon the gang approached in which my wife was chained. I looked, and beheld her familiar face; but O, reader, that glance of agony! may God spare me ever again enduring the excruciating horror of that moment! She passed, and came near to where I stood. I seized hold of her hand, intending to bid her farewell; but words failed me; the gift of utterance had fled, and I remained speechless. I followed her for some distance, with her hand grasped in mine, as if to save her from her fate, but I could not speak, and I was obliged to turn away in silence.

Multatuli · Post by **Multatuli** » 17 Sep 2015 15:01

I still don't know why Singha posted the wikipage link on the tv show.

Los Angeles prosecutors charge surgeon, others in $150 million scam

An orthopedic surgeon and more than a dozen associates bilked insurance companies out of more than $150 million in a scheme that included an assistant who never attended medical school but operated on patients, Los Angeles prosecutors said.

A Los Angeles Superior Court indictment unveiled on Tuesday accused the surgeon, Dr. Munir Uwaydah, and his staff of deceiving nearly two dozen patients into believing he would perform their surgeries, when instead they were done by the physician's assistant, Peter Nelson.

Without Uwaydah present, patients were left with lasting scars and many required additional surgeries, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Uwaydah, his former attorney and Nelson were among 15 people who prosecutors said fraudulently billed insurance companies $150 million in a scheme that Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey called one of the largest of its kind ever carried out in California.

The charges result from a five-year investigation by the district attorney's office, prosecutors said in a statement.

Uwaydah was arrested last week in Germany and is awaiting extradition to the United States, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

The charges against Uwaydah and 10 others outlined in one indictment include conspiracy, insurance fraud and aggravated mayhem.

Charges brought against Uwaydah's personal lawyer and three others in a second indictment also unveiled on Tuesday included conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, money laundering and illegal patient referrals.

Read further: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/ ... 0F20150916

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 17 Sep 2015 15:27

Jarita wrote:
Karan M wrote:Words fail me -
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... ns/361631/

This one

The next day, I stationed myself by the side of the road, along which the slaves, amounting to three hundred and fifty, were to pass. The purchaser of my wife was a Methodist minister, who was about starting for North Carolina. Pretty soon five waggon-loads of little children passed, and looking at the foremost one, what should I see but a little child, pointing its tiny hand towards me, exclaiming, “There’s my father; I knew he would come and bid me good-bye.” It was my eldest child! Soon the gang approached in which my wife was chained. I looked, and beheld her familiar face; but O, reader, that glance of agony! may God spare me ever again enduring the excruciating horror of that moment! She passed, and came near to where I stood. I seized hold of her hand, intending to bid her farewell; but words failed me; the gift of utterance had fled, and I remained speechless. I followed her for some distance, with her hand grasped in mine, as if to save her from her fate, but I could not speak, and I was obliged to turn away in silence.

That is the exact passage which was unspeakable.

Haresh · Post by **Haresh** » 18 Sep 2015 14:59

Fresno man sentenced to 13 years in prison for 2013 hate crime

http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/cri ... 84841.html

Multatuli · Post by **Multatuli** » 19 Sep 2015 11:42

Sex, fraud, retaliation: ‘Pervasive misconduct’ found at US Census Bureau

Employees at the US Census Bureau’s hiring office cost the taxpayers over $1 million by falsified time cards, broke rules by hiring friends and family, and threatened whistleblowers who reported them, government inspectors have found.

http://www.rt.com/usa/315898-census-bureau-abuse-fraud/

arun · Post by **arun** » 19 Sep 2015 20:12

Neighbours sue to have Autistic son of Indian Origin parents Vidyut Gopal and Parul Agrawal declared as a “Public Nuisance”:

When neighbors complained about Vidyut Gopal and Parul Agrawal's young son with autism pulling children's hair, biting a woman and other menacing behavior, the couple said they did what they could to make it stop.

They hired caregivers, gave the boy special medication, and put him in therapeutic classes. But instead of bringing calm to Arlington Court, the Silicon Valley couple got slapped with a lawsuit that called their son a "public nuisance" -- and ultimately drove them out of their home of seven years.

Now, Gopal and Agrawal find themselves in the midst of a legal battle that has sparked outrage among parents of children with autism everywhere, and raised troubling questions about how to coexist with neighbors with special needs kids. …………………………

From Mercury News:

Sunnyvale: Neighbors sue to declare autistic boy a public nuisance :

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 20 Sep 2015 18:50

Trump is the ISIS of american politics.

ISIS burns traitors, beheads infidels and when people are outraged, they basically say "but this is what islam has been saying for centuries, you are outraged because we are carrying it out?" and the rest of the islamic countries around them cannot oppose them openly because ISIS can claim that "we are doing what you been saying, you are against us for that? you must be traitor".

Same with Trump. He merely says openly and un-apologetically what republican politicos and commentators have been insinuating all along. And they cannot attack him for that because that will only discredit them.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Sep 2015 07:11

i think atleast he is not a hypocrite. he is a good thing to expose republican hypocrisy on certain matters.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 21 Sep 2015 07:12

now we need a democratic version of trump to expose hypocrisy on that side of the aisle.

Multatuli · Post by **Multatuli** » 22 Sep 2015 00:08

GOP candidate Carson: Muslim shouldn't be elected president

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says Islam is antithetical to the Constitution, and he doesn't believe that a Muslim should be elected president.

Carson, a devout Christian, says a president's faith should matter to voters if it runs counter to the values and principles of America.

Responding to a question during an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," he described the Islamic faith as inconsistent with the Constitution.

"I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation," Carson said. "I absolutely would not agree with that."

He did not specify in what way Islam ran counter to constitutional principles.

Carson's comments drew strong criticism from the country's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

...

Carson's comments came amid lingering fallout over Republican Donald Trump's refusal last week to take issue with a man during a campaign event who wrongly called President Barack Obama a Muslim and said Muslims are "a problem in this country."

Also speaking on NBC on Sunday, Trump said that a Muslim in the White House is "something that could happen... Some people have said it already happened, frankly."

http://news.yahoo.com/gop-candidate-car ... ction.html#

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 22 Sep 2015 01:24

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/gra ... versities/

damning, but will be dismissed as 'she consented and then regretted, how can it be rape' , 'leading questions' etc.

ask any american as who has a 'rape culture' - they will say INDIA. and indians too will be joining the tut-tut...

Multatuli · Post by **Multatuli** » 22 Sep 2015 02:11

8 killed in Chicago weekend violence; Emanuel to increase police patrols

After a violent weekend, Mayor Emanuel said police will step up patrols.

Monday, September 21, 2015
CHICAGO (WLS) --

Chicago police said that over the three-day period of Friday to Sunday, seven people were fatally shot and one other was stabbed to death.

Tyjuan Poindexter, 14, was shot to death while walking to a school park around 7:30 p.m. near East 44th Street and South Greenwood Avenue in the North Kenwood neighborhood. His family said he was a good kid. A 15-year-old boy he was walking with was also shot. Police said neither boy had ties to gangs.

"I know the streets get real dangerous and they ain't trying to do nothing about it. My grandson is not a gang-banger," Michael Gabb, victim's grandfather, said, breaking down with emotion.

...

Chicago is one of several U.S. cities, including Houston, New Orleans, Baltimore and Milwaukee, which have seen spikes in the number of homicides. But Chicago has been at the center of the story of gun violence, particularly since homicides climbed past the 500 mark - far higher than the totals reported in the much larger cities of New York and Los Angeles.

http://abc7chicago.com/news/50-shot-5-f ... ls/994255/

deWalker · Post by **deWalker** » 22 Sep 2015 08:29

arun wrote:Neighbours sue to have Autistic son of Indian Origin parents Vidyut Gopal and Parul Agrawal declared as a “Public Nuisance”:

Sunnyvale: Neighbors sue to declare autistic boy a public nuisance :

This story is more complex than just a DOO family being sued by insensitive Americans: at least one of the litigators are another desi couple who were their neighbors. I've followed the story and the follow-on articles closely, there is a lot of empathy going out for both sides.

arun · Post by **arun** » 22 Sep 2015 11:11

New York Times reports that US Soldiers in Afghanistan were ordered by senior officers of the US Military to ignore practise of homosexual paedophilia aka “bacha bazi” indulged by their Afghan allies:

U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies

Yayavar · Post by **Yayavar** » 22 Sep 2015 23:17

^^ what is "F.O.B Delhi" in the above writeup

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 22 Sep 2015 23:44

they call their forward op bases all sorts of names

Yayavar · Post by **Yayavar** » 23 Sep 2015 03:16

thx karan

Melwyn · Post by **Melwyn** » 23 Sep 2015 22:40

Did a U.S.-Trained Syrian Rebel Commander Defect to al Qaeda?

He says he’s left the Pentagon’s program. His comrades confirm he’s been missing. Al Qaeda says he was theirs all along.

The commander of Division 30, one of the U.S.-trained Syrian rebel groups, has allegedly defected from the train-and-equip program, according to a message he posted on social media, amid rumors (and denials) that he may have actually gone over to Jabhat al-Nusra, the official al Qaeda franchise in his war-ravaged country.

Division 30 has formally acknowledged that it lost contact with Major Anas Obaid (a.k.a. Abu Zayd) in the Aleppo suburbs where he, along with 71 other rebels graduated from the New Syrian Force, as the Pentagon proxy army is known, reportedly were dispatched on September 19, after completing their training in Turkey. Division 30 also addressed speculation that Abu Zayd flipped to the jihadists and says that if this information is confirmed, it will try him for treason.

Officials at the Pentagon, U.S. Central Command and the State Department initially all told The Daily Beast that they were unaware of defections among the second class of U.S.-trained fighters. Central Command later emailed a statement stating that it had “no indication that any New Syrian Forces fighters have defected to Al Nusra Front” and “all Coalition-issued weapons and equipment are under the positive control of NSF fighters.” But U.S. officials have also noted that Washington does not track or exercise command-and-control of New Syrian Force fighters once they enter Syria, so it is unclear whether the U.S. military is aware of Abu Zayd’s current disposition. Last week, the Pentagon said one fighter from its first class of 54 graduates had been captured by “anti-Syrian forces.”

Melwyn · Post by **Melwyn** » 24 Sep 2015 03:45

A bit old hopefully not a repeat.

Obama : Racism is part of our DNA

WASHINGTON — It was a single word, just six letters long, but one that has not been spoken by an American president in public for generations.

President Obama invoked the word “nigger” in a podcast interview released on Monday to drive home his point that slavery still “casts a long shadow” on American life. But in the process, he touched a raw nerve in a country struggling to confront racism and hatred in the days after nine black parishioners were killed during Bible study in a South Carolina church.

For part of the hourlong conversation with Mr. Maron, the nation’s first black president patiently explained that race relations had improved in his lifetime. But in acknowledging that racism is still deeply embedded in the United States as a “part of our DNA,” Mr. Obama turned to a racially charged word. His use of it quickly became the focus of daylong commentary online and on cable news.

Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League, condemned the president’s use of the term, calling it a “disparaging, hateful” word that should never be uttered, even by artists or poets who say they are seeking to change a word of hate into one of love. Nor should it be used, he insisted, by presidents trying to teach a nation a lesson.

“I got called that name numerous times,” Mr. Morial said. “It led to fights. It never is appropriate to use it.”

Mr. Morial praised Mr. Obama for his willingness to talk about racism, and he said he did not think the president intended to offend anyone. But he said the word was no better than the Confederate flag or the white hood of the Ku Klux Klan.

Multatuli · Post by **Multatuli** » 28 Sep 2015 01:38

Houston boy, aged six, killed in drive-by shooting

A 6-year-old boy was killed and his 11-year-old brother critically wounded when they were struck by a volley of bullets in a drive-by shooting while in bed at a Houston home on Friday, media reports said.

More than a dozen shots ripped through a wall and window of the home in the shooting during the early hours of Friday that may have been gang-related, police on the scene told local media.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/ ... S520150925

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 28 Sep 2015 13:07

He didn’t see it coming': Outcry in Virginia as cop tasers man offering no resistance (VIDEO)

http://www.rt.com/usa/316719-usa-police-taser-suspect/

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 30 Sep 2015 11:05

Misbehaving Saudi Royals Keeping Beverly Hills in Business

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 30 Sep 2015 11:26

looks like they got bored of london and paris where a similar industry of pandering to these kleptocrats exists.
kleptocrats because by fiat they have laid claim to their nations resources to fund these lifestyles.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 02 Oct 2015 02:12

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... /73153610/

13 shot dead in yet another mass shooting...

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 02 Oct 2015 04:56

Paul Theroux's futuristic novel the "O-Zone",a chaotic US ,with islands of the elite surrounded by chaos,and the "Hunger Games",both reflect the times,where there are in reality two Americas. Those who fled Katrina in their SUVs and those poor who couldn't escape ,,survived the mega-hurricane and who were treated like animals by the US Natl. Guard,as if they were looters. The recent race riots in Ferguson,etc., after shootings of blacks,shows what the country has become.It has descended back into the morass of racial prejudice,where blacks,latinos,minorities and "white trash" fight to survive the overarching control and yoke of the establishment uber-rich,who are totally insulated from the sores of the underbelly of American life for most of its people.

US shootings are killing more at home than those of US bombings of ISIS/ISIL!

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 02 Oct 2015 07:38

http://www.vox.com/2015/10/1/9434549/school-shooting-oregon-umpqua-community-college

Kortney Moore, 18, from Rogue River, was in her Writing 115 class in Snyder Hall when one shot came through a window. She saw her teacher get shot in the head. The shooter was inside at that point, and he told people to get on the ground. The shooter was asking people to stand up and state their religion and then started firing away, Moore said. Moore was lying there with people who had been shot.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 02 Oct 2015 11:25

Irony of the tragedy would be when NRA comes and say all these shooting could have been avoided if these student had guns and could defend themself , so provide guns to all of them.

I saw them saying exactly the same thing many times before

manjgu · Post by **manjgu** » 02 Oct 2015 11:55

any clue on the identity of the shooter? waiting to hear a islamic name....

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 02 Oct 2015 12:05

sheriff has so far refused to reveal. only one of the hostages said the shooter asked peoples religion and singled out christians.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 02 Oct 2015 12:27

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/02/chris-harper-mercer-first-details-emerge-of-oregon-college-killer

arun · Post by **arun** » 03 Oct 2015 09:30

“The U.S. Is Far More Violent Than Other Rich Countries” :

Slate

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 03 Oct 2015 14:20

Oooh! Precious "bungholes" indeed! British toilet paper not good enough for the NFL teams what!
Are there any statistical and anatomical differences between a Yanqui ars*hole and a British one? One would be most interested to know since one does not "bat for the other side".With so many Brits "batting" in that fashion,surely the Yanquis fears should be suitably assuaged. In fact,one is amazed at seeing so many toilet roll designs when shopping in a Brit supermarket,aromas,sizes,thicknesses,etc. I suspect that there may be excessive b*ggery in the NFL why thicker rolls are required!

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/us-s ... 78001.html

New York Jets NFL team send 350 rolls of toilet paper to London ahead of match against Miami Dolphins

The team want to replicate their operation in the US as best they can
Samuel Osborne |
Saturday 3 October 2015

New York Jets quarter-back Ryan Fitzpatrick Getty Images

The New York Jets have sent 350 rolls of toilet paper to London ahead of their match against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, supposedly to replace the "thinner version used in England".

Whenever an NFL team plays abroad, much effort is made to recreate the routine and home comforts the team are accustomed to.

Items the New York Jets brought to London include:

•350 rolls of toilet paper
•263 boxes of food, including cereal, condiments and snacks
•315 power devices, like extension cords and adaptors
•2,683 equipment items, from wristbands to kneepads

The trip has been meticulously planned since it was announced, the New York Times reports.

The Jets' flew in the chef from their London hotel so they could learn how food for the players would be prepared at the team headquarters.

American home comforts like hot sauce and barbeque sauce have also been sent over.

Players were advised about the cultural and culinary differences between the US and the UK, and warned about the higher voltage of Britain's plugs.

“Some may say that’s a little over the top or whatnot, but it didn’t really cost that much, so why not?” Aaron Degerness, the Jets' senior manager of team operations, told the New York Times. “We’re basically trying to replicate everything that we’re doing here over there.”

The New York Times sports reporter Ben Shpigel, who wrote the article about the logistics of bringing the team to the UK, told the BBC the Jets' relied on the advice of an intern who had been to London several times.

"He noticed while he was there that - and I quote - 'the toilet paper was very thin because their plumbing isn't as good'.

"So, the intern informed the operations staff and the Jets ordered 350 rolls of toilet paper for the hotel and the stadium."

The New York Jets will play the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium from 2.30pm on Sunday.